A hard line to draw. "You're garbage at the game" is game-related and a personal attack at the same time. He tried that once, he was hella biased and only banned people he didn't like.
The rules for "flaming" need to be very clear without grey areas.

L2 Sublimity nova 2010 (1st low-rate / high-rate mixed environment server) - 3,5k online - no issues whatsoever. Great server.
L2 Sublimity final 2012 (typical mid-rate interlude with custom armors) - 2-3k online - opal got offended because i said he made the server for the money on the forum and banned me in-game -> sgc out -> dhz side out -> rip server
L2 Sublimity Exile 2014 (2nd exile) About 1k+ online, the server did run for months. I don't think there was any issue on this server at all, except for the massively nerfed warlords which is just a class balance issue.
L2 Sublimity 2017 (low-rate high rate mix again, good features but...) bad info from admins regarding PI being part of the server -> ferarri complaining about it and getting nobl healers from opal -> then tf losing and complaining and getting some nobl for their healers too -> tf still losing to alliance and then complaining about 1 java mage party having donate gear -> tf loses valakas and ragequits until they have a 4-hour long meeting on discord with opal -> the next day tf shows up with nearly every DD on a +12/14 phoenix bow (donate enchant) - either "donations" that were planned to be recalled or corruption (prolly the recalled donations though) ->
alliance realizes what happens and leaves the server the same day they saw the weapons -> 1 turkish guy "donates" duals ++ and we level up 1 duelist party just to go have fun at epics and troll enemy sides but opal and his team get the info that the donations would be recalled and bans all of our duelists (in my opinion really bad move considering the obvious fake donation from tf) and that leads to more controversy and the end of the server eventually
L2 Sublimity 2018 really low population (people spooked after 2017's fiasco), not a good farm system, this time Opal and his team decided not to interfere with the community's drama and the server lasted quite a bit, until the community itself decided to kill it. SGC starts as 4 cp side, the server is being dominated, ngu decides they dont want to win under sgc name, they want ngu name to "shine" (lol) so they go their own way first as 1,5 party "solo", dickhold 2 other tags vs SGC at QA and fail miserably. Next, the Aden siege, they join hattori making a 5 party side and again, fail miserably vs SGC (4 cp. 1 of these 4 cp being a total random garbage archer party with 1 bot bp and a boxed cat kekw). Then hattori allies & recruits up to 8 parties, forces CF to do the same (merging with jersey's parties) and voila, 2 sides 8 parties going to antharas, SGC with 3 parties online and a random archer party helping them vs us as if 8vs3 wasn't enough. SGC leaves the server as a winner and the server dies quickly after.
Congratulations if you managed to read the entire thing. I don't want to brag about 2018 or anything, the competition was garbage anyway. My point of this post was what we need to learn from the past and how Opal can potentially create the next sublimity without repeating the same mistakes.
The biggest lesson for Opal is - STOP INTERFERING WITH THE COMMUNITY'S DRAMA SO MUCH - Facebook is doing the same thing, and so is youtube and people are boycotting them. The only reason why they are still relevant is because there isn't a strong alternative out there YET, unlike L2 servers.
- Stop talking about toxicity and flames on forum. Let people say whatever they want as long as it's not something about you personally.
- Stop banning people for stupid reasons (including flames) or even using interfaces. If you really want people to join without interface, create ur own classic interface with farm assistant (examples: l2 warland / l2 essence)
- You want to ban bots ? Absolutely destroy people using adrenaline scripts and farm 24/7 AFK. Even if they get pk-ed they auto-tap to town, rebuff and back to their spot. That is the most justified perma char ban.
- Stop worrying if a clan leaves, you don't need anyone. When tf "quit" (basically joined qb) in 2014, the server kept going, just with a different leader.
If you want to "control" your server, do it in a smart way. For example, in order to avoid what happened in 2018, disable alliances & royal guards and add restrictions such as "unable to res people from another clan / or without a clan". If you want to be real-time police, watch how fights progress and give penalties to clans who blatantly dickhold (as in farming epics side by side just to prevent a specific 3rd side from getting it).
Keep those good low-high rate mix features and re-open a similar mid-rate interlude. Easy A/S grade farm, no customs and add drops in low/high party zone such as blessed enchants, LS & maybe bogs with low chance. You can even rotate zones based on time/day like a 24h rotation. People want to hit 78+ & S grades fast and start fighting. Then party zone grind for the enchants + daily pvp for spots. That way, people will start pvping early and they will pvp while pve-ing which is the best remedy for this game.
@OpalSlow This post is mostly directed to you.

You guys mean we will join server with 4 pts like most of the sides, then you will make a side with 6-7 pts + 1 archer pt dickholding, and decide to leave a dead server with 150 online after winning 99% of epics/pvps ?
Yeah, well I'm pretty sure this server was dominated hard and y'all were pretty butthurt losing with double numbers to me. Never forget the massive dickhold at QA =] we won with half numbers and a bot archer pt NIGGAZCREW LOL.

i realized on this server that people will do w/e they can to win and complain when they lose no matter the circumstances. we never lied to anyone about numbers or anything and look where that got us. Honesty and sympathy doesn't work with these people. Also, if ure wondering what happened, people with severe mental disorders are left playing the game. Narcissists, pathological liars and deluded people completely detached from reality who have a strong dopamine addiction and will try everything to get that dose with no success. Kids are depressed severely and that's the vicious circle they're caught in.
Once you realize that this is what's going on, you'll see the big picture. Reason why we decided to leave (partially) was to make them mad and without purpose and hit them where it hurts. Also, there was many other issues with the server that don't matter now.
Even braveheart lies so much after playing with me. Look at my quote below for example.
you said i "recruited more" after u left, but reality is your archer party went out + vincent's CC = 2 parties. We went down to 3 parties at max activity so we only recruited 1 archer party (niggascrew) and we went up to 4 parties max activity. You lost f2f same numbers (or with 5 parties sometimes) with 100% ratio until you recruited everything that moves and zerged with over 6 parties and forced CF to do the same.
That wasn't enough, in antharas u also dickheld kebab archer party and farmed antharas together. I like the fact that we made u mad when we left cuz u would pat each other about how good and alive the server still is but u all knew the reality and how mad u were at SGC leaving. Next time, don't be hypocritical scambags and u might get us to do u the favor to play the server ure playing.
Until then, keep begging random enemies to log in so u have someone to target other than the epics :'D
peace out boys

hello boys. i see u're crying after we left. well, next time don't be hypocrites and complain over a 4-cp side starting on a server while it was announced on top of it and ending up allying 7-8 parties against them cuz they "zerg". also, when that side drops numbers and still gets dickheld with triple numbers by 3 different tags, then dont complain that they left the server.
also, the server had a horrible start and 0 daily pvp. the farming system was nonsense and the good update came when the server had 20 people online during the day and 150ish during epics.
If you want to blame someone, first look in the mirror. Next time u want a server to last follow these 2 basic and simple steps:
1 - open beta
2 - form sides before the server starts
like it happens on every successful server. peace out and merry xmas

i dont care if its 50 54 or 58. that only means ur parties arent full. u can still make functioning CC parties with 6-7 people or mage/archer parties with 7-8 people. That doesn't change the fact that u got 8 functioning parties.

other than epics, there's no other action so pretty much daily pvp is dead. olympiad is dead too. we're all waiting tomorrow's update that can change that. We'll see. Server's not dead yet, but people complaining aren't wrong either.